PolyGeyser Beadfilter

Polygeyser Bead Filters

The PolyGeyser beadfilter is a real revolution in filter technique!

The PolyGeyser beadfilter is automatically self-cleaning without moving parts or electronics, contains EN (Enhanced Nitrification) media that offers50% to 100% greater nitrification than standard beads, and is capable of providing mechanical filtration down to 5 micron particle size! The PolyGeyser filter can be installed underneath or above water level. Any low amp water pump (like Oase, Messner, Red Dragon, and Sequence) can be used as a circulation pump. The PolyGeyser has the lowest possible pressure loss because it uses no multiport-valve. Inlets and outlets are 3". It’s already being used in aquaculture, and now it’s ready for koi ponds.

Fully automated cleaning without moving parts or electronics!

No more clogging filters when you forget a cleaning cycle.

Special beads that offer 50% to 100% greater nitrification

Bio and mechanical filtrationin one unit

Mechanical filtration down to 5 micron!

For installation underneath and above water level

Can be used with low wattage pumps for high efficiency

Very little water loss with each waste water dum

BEAD FILTERS

Floating plastic media have been employed since the mid-1970s in the biofiltration components of high density systems for raising food, game and ornamental fish. Although successful, the earliest air-washed filters were poorly understood and their use was limited. In the late 1980s, researchers in Louisiana State University's Civil Engineering Aquatic Systems Laboratory demonstrated that hydraulically washed bead filters were capable of performing both solids removal and biofiltration for high density catfish grow-out systems. These results stimulated additional research on bead filters. Development of mechanically washed units (U.S. patent #5126042) overcame many of the operational difficulties experienced by earlier designs. Shortly thereafter, the bubble washed bead filter (U.S. patent #5232586) was developed and tested for use on outdoor ponds. Since 1989, bead filters have been applied on systems holding foodfish species such as tilapia, catfish, striped bass, trout, and red drum, as well as systems for ornamental and tropical fish, alligators, crawfish, crabs, oysters, clams and turtles.

THEORY OF OPERATION

Bead filters accomplish both solids capture and biofiltration. They operate very much like submerged rock beds or undergravel filters with the added advantage of easy cleaning. They are generally classified as "expandable granular biofilters" or EGBs and they are distinguished by the use of a buoyant granular medium. The packed bed of plastic beads, through which water from the rearing tank is passed, captures solids and simultaneously provides a large surface area for cultures of bacteria (Nitrosomonas sp. and Nitrobacter sp.) which remove dissolved nitrogenous wastes. Bead filters thus dramatically simplify aquatic farming operations by providing two of the most important water reconditioning processes, clarification and biofiltration, in a single unit.

CLARIFICATION

Clarification is the process of removing suspended solids from water. Suspended solids in a recirculating system are generally small particles (< 100 microns) of undigested or partially digested food, bacteria, algae, clay, and silt, which may remain suspended in the water for an extended period of time. Fine suspended solids tend to reduce the clarity of the water, whereas larger organic particles create a serious wasteload problem by consuming tremendous amounts of oxygen, thus adversely affecting the rearing system's ecology. Bead filters remove suspended solids by at least four different mechanisms as the recirculated water is passed through the plastic bead bed. Physical straining is probably the most dominant mechanism for the larger particles (>80 microns). The suspended particles between 20 to 80 microns are removed by interception, a subtle process caused by collisions between the particle and the bead media surface. The bead filter also removes finer particles (<20 microns="" but="" at="" a="" slower="" rate="" it="" is="" believed="" that="" bioabsorption="" the="" capture="" of="" particles="" by="" bacterial="" biofilm="" dominant="" removal="" process="" for="" such="" fine="" bead="" filters="" are="" excellent="" clarification="" units="" capable="" maintaining="" display="" quality="" water="" high="" waste="" loading="" rates="" p="">

BIOFILTRATION

Biofiltration depends on the formation of a filter bed through the attachment and growth of beneficial bacteria that extract dissolved chemicals from the water and convert them to particulate biomass or harmless dissolved compounds. Given a proper environment, the bacteria grow in a thin film covering the surface of each bead. Each cubic foot of packed media contains approximately 600,000 beads that provide 400 square feet of surface area for the propagation of bacterial films. There are literally hundreds of different species of bacteria at work in a biofilter. Most of the bacteria are classified as "heterotrophic" species, which actively break down organic materials into carbon dioxide and water. The most critical, however, are broadly described as nitrifying bacteria, consisting primarily of the genera Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter. These bacteria are responsible for the conversion of the toxic nitrogen forms, ammonia and nitrite, to relatively harmless nitrate. Management of biofiltration is critical at the high loadings typical of recirculating aquaculture systems used for the production of food and/or ornamental fish. Several parameters that influence bead biofiltration have been identified (Table 1).

PROPELLER WASHED BEAD FILTERS

Propeller washed bead filters contain a filtration bed of floating plastic beads in a configurationdesigned to facilitate solids capture and biofiltration. Water from the rearing tank enters the filter through a distribution manifold and passes upward through the bead bed, where the physical and biological purification processes occur. (Fig. 1)

Intermittent agitation of the medium (illustrated above) by embedded, high-speed propellers dislodges captured solids and biofloc, which sink and collect in an internal settling cone. Sludge is removed in a concentrated form, greatly reducing the water lost during the washing process.